David Allen Burke wrote this recently-released book about the nuclear testing that took place in Mississippi in the 1960s.

Written by

LaReeca Rucker
| lrucker@jackson.gannett.com

He was 7 years old when U.S. government representatives came to his Lamar County home, boarded it up and evacuated his family three miles away to protect them from a nuclear blast that would both shake his body and the earth in a 30-mile radius of the Tatum Salt Dome.

"We were probably about a mile and a half from ground zero," said Kevin Saul, now 55. "They evacuated us to my grandmother's house in Baxterville. It was just like an earthquake came through. The house was shimmering and shaking. The ground had a buckle effect to it. It would knock you off your feet."